Social and Parasocial Relationships on Social Network Sites(3)

with psychological well-being

This study thus distinguishes reciprocal relationships from unidirectional ones,where an ordinary SNS user receives messages from celebrities,such as movie stars,singers,ath-letes,or politicians.1516In the literature of media psychology, such unilateral relationships have been conceptualized as parasocial relationships,de?ned as‘‘simulacrum of conversa-tional give and take’’between the mass media performers and the audience.17(p215)For example,SNS users making ‘‘SNS friendships’’with celebrities hold imaginary unilateral relationships,which are clearly distinguished from reciprocal ones where two(or more)users know one another.For a parasocial relationship to be effective,according to Horton and Wohl,17(p125)the audience should form the‘‘illusion of[a] face-to-face relationship[with a performer].within which much may be added by fantasy’’because the performer is not aware of the audience and their reactions.

Because parasocial relationships between the audience and performers lack reciprocity and authenticity,past scholarship tested whether the audience of parasocial relationships shows symptoms of poor psychological well-being,such as loneli-ness,alienation,or life dissatisfaction.For example,McQuail et al.argue that people’s desire for parasocial relationships leads to de?ciency in social life because such relationships are merely illusionary compensation for unsatisfactory real world relationships.18,19Thus,indulgence in parasocial rela-tionships leads to social isolation,detaches the audience from real relationships,and results in heavy mass media con-sumption.20–22Although some studies have found that neg-ative effects of parasocial relationships might be overcome if audience members successfully identify themselves with media performers,23,24many studies have con?rmed that parasocial relationships with celebrities whose lives are very distant from those of ordinary people more or less result in life dissatisfaction,frustration,alienation,or loneliness,17,25,26 and serious indulgence in media use to escape from the re-ality(i.e.,obsessed media use,loss of control).7,17If such reasoning is accurate,we can expect that:

H1:Dependency on parasocial relationships with celebrities on SNSs is positively related with loneliness and SNS

addiction,but negatively related with interpersonal trust

among SNS users.

Reciprocal relationships and their relationships

with psychological well-being

While parasocial SNS relationships between users and ce-lebrities resemble the mass media model,mutually interac-tive SNS friendships are akin to conversations via phones, e-mail exchange,or online chatting.13Since mutually inter-active online communication is interpersonal,like face to face interaction,a past studies have demonstrated that reciprocal interaction on the Internet strengthens existing friend-ships10,12,27and even facilitates of?ine meetings,which in turn lowers loneliness and forti?es social bonding.11Thus,we can anticipate that:

H2a:Reciprocal social relationships on SNSs are negatively related with loneliness but positively related with in-

terpersonal trust.

However,in terms of SNS addiction(i.e.,obsessed SNS use):

H2b:Dependency on reciprocal social relationships on SNSs could be positively correlated with SNS addiction.

This is because active interaction with SNS friends means users are more attentive on the given SNS,and users might be afraid that SNS abstinence might hurt the ongoing reciprocal relationship.

Methods

Sample

To test the hypotheses,national representative survey data were used.Survey respondents were recruited from the Ko-rean Ipsos panel,which is an online survey service based on national samples of Internet users in South Korea.There are about660,000people on the Ipsos panel.Out of these,a total of 404Korean adults who use at least one SNS(e.g.,Twitter, Facebook,me2day,Cyworld,or other services)were recruited to test our hypotheses.The survey was conducted in January 2012.On average,selected respondents utilized two SNSs (M=2.20,SD=1.10;median=2)and reported they used SNSs about six days per week(M=5.62,SD=2.28,median=6).

Types of SNS relationship

We distinguish social(i.e.,reciprocal)relationships from parasocial ones.To measure both types of relationship,we asked respondents for the number of their mutual SNS friendships and the number of their nonmutual ones with celebrities,such as movie stars,athletes,or politicians.In the case of Twitter,we distinguished mutual following from mere following.The distribution of social relationships was skewed,indicating that some respondents reported to have many relationships(M=51.03,SD=179.69,range0–3,000).

SOCIAL AND PARASOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS ON SOCIAL NETWORK SITES513

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